A southern white writer, educator, and activist, Lillian Smith (1897-1966) spoke out all her life against injustice. In the Killers of the Dream (1949), her most influential book, she draws on memories of her childhood to describe the psychological and moral cost of the powerful, contradictory rules about sin, sex, and segregation-the intricate system of taboos-that undergirded Southern society.

Introduction to the 1994 Edition Foreword: A Letter to My Publisher

Part One The Dreamers

1. When I was a Child 2. Custom and Conscience 3. Unto the Third and Fourth Generation 4. The Stolen Future

Part Two The White Man's Burden

1. The Lessons 2. Trembling Earth 3. Three Ghost Stories 4. The Women

Part Three Giants in the Earth

1. Distance and Darkness 2. Two Men and a Bargain 3. Tobacco Road Is a Long Journey 4. Southern Waste

A southern white writer, educator, and activist, Lillian Smith (1897-1966) spoke out all her life against injustice. In the Killers of the Dream (1949), her most influential book, she draws on memories of her childhood to describe the psychological and moral cost of the powerful, contradictory rules about sin, sex, and segregation-the intricate system of taboos-that undergirded Southern society.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the 1994 Edition Foreword: A Letter to My Publisher

Part One The Dreamers

1. When I was a Child 2. Custom and Conscience 3. Unto the Third and Fourth Generation 4. The Stolen Future

Part Two The White Man's Burden

1. The Lessons 2. Trembling Earth 3. Three Ghost Stories 4. The Women

Part Three Giants in the Earth

1. Distance and Darkness 2. Two Men and a Bargain 3. Tobacco Road Is a Long Journey 4. Southern Waste